


Haven

by orphan_account



Category: Iron Man (Mixed Media), The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Angst, I mix my Iron Man media, Long Fic Will Prolly Be Long, M/M, i'll update tags as needed, most likely anyways, paranoid Tony
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-12-24
Updated: 2013-07-11
Packaged: 2017-11-22 08:28:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/607832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Three days straight drinking and Tony wakes up to a cleaned workshop. Well. What the hell.</p><p>[ Where Loki badgers and annoys Tony to no end until some plot shows its face. If there is any. Haha. ]</p><p>[[Currently on HIATUS until I can more so figure where to take this better. OCT 9/13]]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [foreverflame](https://archiveofourown.org/users/foreverflame/gifts).



> I can't write.  
> I apologize now.
> 
> Not beta'd because I live near no one right now and other such things.
> 
> I write pretty slow so hopefully I can get a good chunk written up while I'm home for Christmas for two weeks.
> 
> I don't own anyone. Harhar.

Tony Stark was a very organized man, except when it came to his workshop. So when he woke up and tried to rub off the sleep from his eyes and the keyboard face from his cheeks and forehead, he was in complete and utter confusion over why his workshop was all tidied up. Even DUM-E had himself a small bow wrapped around his main neck joint.

One of the first things that Tony really wanted to know was how it had all happened and why he had slept, once again, in his workshop. He sat himself up straight in his chair and looked around his immediate workspace. He slipped a brow on his face upwards as his blue eyes caught the empty glass bottles around him and the couple of them that had made it to the floor. He groaned very softly as he moved his body to pick up one from the floor and place it back onto his desk which is where he had thought it originally came from. He let his hands make it back up to his head, calloused fingers running through the very tousled brown hair before they stopped and just held his head.

However much he drank, he had a killer headache.

Tony took each bottle with a now unwillingly free hand and lined them up one after another across the surface he had papers on. He simply sighed and let his head drop back to the desk and hit his keyboard. He had drunk through at least five bottles of alcohol of different varieties. There was whisky, scotch, wine, and a couple weaker choices that were in his collection upstairs in his bar. The whiskey bottles cap was on the ground, where he had originally found the bottle. He took that as a sign that the whisky was the first one to have been downed without a glass. His ice bucket he seemed to have brought down though was now entirely melted, giving him the impression that he had the thought of taking it slow with the drinks, but he never did. He had drunk himself silly, and he knew only now after waking up what had happened.

Pepper Potts had dumped _the_ Anthony “Tony” Edward Stark.

Pepper Potts was the only woman in the world he thought he could tie himself to, spend the rest of his life with, and not stray from. He failed it all though, he strayed and strayed and strayed and Pepper spent night after night yelling and screaming and crying because of him, all because of Tony Stark. He never had planned any of it, but yet again, who usually does? He thought he was more than happy with Pepper at the start; everything was going perfect it seemed. Seven months in though he knew things weren’t going smoothly when he came back home and he woke up not knowing what Pepper was yelling and crying at him for and he sported a somewhat matching headache to his current one.

That marked the fifth time he had cheated on her and really it was when everything started falling apart. She had found out through one of the worst means possible and he wasn’t even going to rethink it and let himself spiral into despair again. Tony cheated again and again on her though, half the time when he didn’t even know he had and woke up with a hangover. Not a single one of the woman and the odd man he had cheated on her with though was anyone who he wanted to keep. Each one of them was a one-night stand, something of an old unbreakable habit of his, a one night lover to try and distract himself from everything that was going on in his head, things that he sadly felt that Pepper couldn’t actually help with, when if he had trusted her, she could have made it all better. But he didn’t let her ease him out of it. It was a fact that tore it all apart and he regretted it all now.

He finally pulled himself out of his thoughts. Really, it wasn’t that bad, Pepper still was his friend as much as they no longer were in a relationship. She still dropped by and dealt with his company for him. Really, things couldn’t have gone smoother after, but he still had some part of him that felt a little incomplete. He brushed the thought away again though and stood himself up. There was another matter on his hands as he looked back around his workshop. Everything was perfectly cleaned except the desk he had drunk himself silly at and made a disaster of.

“Who in all the god damn world would come into my own workshop and clean it for me _without my permission to be down here?_ ” he snarled softly. There wasn’t any anger in his tone as he spoke the words to himself, more annoyance that someone had been there and he had not been informed of the situation. There were countless people it could have been; Pepper might have came down and done it herself since she knew a pass code to come in, but really after the whole break up thing she probably wouldn’t have; Bruce might have pitied him and cleaned it up but he rarely went into the workshop without Tony’s permission; Steve might have done it as an act of kindness to hopefully brighten the genius’s miserable life, but he respected boundaries of privacy and so he also wouldn’t have done it. Clint and Natasha were completely out of the question because neither of them really cared for Tony beyond the surface of their Avengers matters. He was at a loss of people to blame when he blinked and rubbed his face.

Well, Thor might have come back. He might have cleane- No. Thor would have made a better disaster of the situation. Unless some really bad shit went on up in Asgard and the big boy wasn’t in control anymore. Oh god oh god oh god, this was starting to sound worse and worse and worse and he wasn’t very pleased with what it was turning into in his mind. Really though, the only thing he could think of was that… Loki, came and cleaned up his workshop. Which meant that basically all of his shit was fucked up and jinxed and would never work anymore and-

“Tony…you okay?”

Well, Tony wasn’t expecting that voice. He spun around to look at the doorway where Steve stood, a weak and worrying smile on his lips. He took a couple steps over to him before looking down at what he was working on the night before. It was rubbish, trash, and absolute crap. He bundled it up in his hands before throwing it at his garbage bin up on the wall, looking at his score. It was only 50 points. Weak, Tony, weak. He stretched his arms from side to side, ignoring his aches and pains as he walked over to him.

“Did you do all this for me or am I going to spend my afternoon worrying what’s broken in here?” he asked, a smirk playing at his lips.

“Uhm, I cleaned up in here. You seemed pretty down and I didn’t know why… so I came down here after you fell asleep and used Peppers pass code to come in. Tony, what happened yesterday?” The sincerity and the worry in Steve’s voice was so thick that even Tony was having a hard time to just brush it off. He looked away then back at him with a soft sigh.

“Pepp and I had a fight then broke up… we’re still friends and all and she still covers Stark Industries. So its okay, but really, it took a pretty big blow at me. I’ll be fine, Cap. Don’t worry about me, worry about yourself, alright? Like hey, didn’t you miss a date fro-“ Whoops. He kept forgetting that that was a touchy subject for the Captain.

Steve narrowed his eyes at him and had covered his mouth when he had kept blabbering. “Don’t worry. I’m fine. Worry about yourself and not pissing anyone off, alright?” Steve raised an eyebrow before he uncovered Tony’s mouth and took a couple steps back. “Just get better. And don’t make this room a disaster in less than a day. Took a lot of work to clean it all up you know.” With that, Steve walked back through the doors and upstairs to the main living area of the tower.

Tony bit his bottom lip before starting to pace like a mad man all the way across his workshop and back. He was in shambles but he’d never let it show, ever. Showing he was upset, sad, or anything just really wasn’t who Tony Stark was. He dug his teeth in a bit harder before he shoved his thumbs through the belt loops of his jeans and released his bottom lip before he hurt himself. Pulling a hand back up he ran his thumb over it to assess the damage he caused himself and looked at the blood on his skin. He groaned and licked at where he had broken open his lip before just leaving it alone and striding after Steve up to the elevator to the main level of his tower.

The kitchen had quite a few people there that day, which was a little bit weird for Tony. Most of the time everyone went on their own timetables and never met up in one room. But in front of Tony stood Bruce Banner, Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanov, Clint Barton, and Pepper Potts. Most of his gang of who he thought he called friends were there, and his ex. Oh lovely. He slinked by them as well as he could to make it to the fridge where he found a couple cinnamon buns Bruce had made for him the day before that just had to be baked. That man was a genius in and out of the science lab, but really, Tony wasn’t surprised. The kitchen was a science lab in its own way, and chemistry of all things, right? Basically the kitchen was Bruce’s other perfect science lab. He was so envious of how much awesome Bruce was secretly capable of, all of it hidden under his skin and he rarely even showed it. The guy was a chemist and a biologist in his own way [doctor], and if Tony had used the wrong word there well, he really didn’t care. His mind, his thoughts, his words, he knew what he meant, that’s all that he cared about.

He slinked even more around the kitchen to the small oven on the counter, setting its temperature before sliding the cinnamon buns in on the sheet before trying to sneak out again. But like hell poor Tony would ever have that kind of luck, huh?

“Tony, a couple of cinnamon buns is not a proper breakfast or a very healthy one.” The voice was soft but held a soft edge to it. That was his ex trying to make sure he was okay while not being overly worrisome. Pepper did still care about him, but, in no way as a girlfriend or a lover. Just more like an older sister or mother, which made Tony laugh just slightly. She brought a brow up at the sounds Tony had made and brought her hands from her hips to crossing across her chest.

The best Tony could do was try and give her the most pathetic puppy eyes he could muster, but he knew he looked pathetic and she would know he had been drinking all night.

“Tony, grab a glass of water or orange juice and down an Advil or two for the headache I am more than positive you have,” she said as she handed him a glass that had seemingly been placed on the table for him to use when he woke up. He took it and sighed, standing up straight and stretching his back, a couple of the vertebrae popping against each other as they shifted more so back to where they were as a natural default in his back. He let out a soft groan before he started walking towards the fridge.

“Alright Pep, I got it I got it.” He slid the glass onto the counter and pulled open the fridge door, pulling out a pitcher of what seemed to look like apple juice. He glanced back at the others on the table. “Hey, anyone have any samples in here that need to be brought to SHEILD or the doctor I should know about before I drink anything?” Mostly groans and a roll of eyes from the table, he chuckled and waved them off before pouring himself a glass and grabbing the bottle of Advil after from in a cupboard. He popped two from the bottle to his hand, dumped them both unceremoniously into his mouth, then downed the glass of apple juice in one go.

“Wow Tony, you’re almost a pro at this by now. How many nights in a row has this been?” Clint piped up, earning a small glare from Tony and a bigger glare from Steve. Natasha had her own plans and elbowed him in the side before standing up.

“Director Fury has been meaning to speak to you Tony, but it seems like you’re still a little out of it from two weeks ago. I’ll tell him that the chances o-“

“Natasha _darling_ , I will see him today. All you can tell him is that there is a chance my mind won’t all be there, but hell, really, my mind isn’t usually around him anyways because he is just so… SERIOUS and I just can’t handle a guy without a sense of humor!” He grinned wide then cut her off before she could say anything else, “and no, every serious situation could do with some humor. Shut your trap.”

She huffed a bit, but very softly and almost unnoticed, before turning on her heel and stalking off to most likely her room now at Stark Tower, or maybe the training rooms where she’ll give one of the dummies a beard and an arc reactor on them to pretend it was him. It wouldn’t be the first time; he had caught that on tape before after he had pulled a nasty prank on her. It was one of the most precious and amazing moments ever though, forever remembered in his mind.

It was quiet for a moment before Bruce spoke up, pointing to the small convection oven he had put his cinnamon buns in. “Uhm, hey, Tony, your cinnamon buns.”

“NOT MY BUNS.” He ran over to the convection oven and turned it off, opening it up and pulling the pan out. The moment after he put the pan down though he ran to the tap and turned on the cold water, running his fingers under it. “Ouch ouch ouch ouch fuuuuuuuck. Pan marks on my fingers.” He pulled the syllable of the ‘e’ in his final word to draw out how much it hurt even if it wasn’t obvious from before. Which he hoped it had been. He then proceeded to suck on the fingers he had used to pull the pan out and grabbed a fork, ready to eat them without much thought.

“I’m glad you like the cinnamon buns, Tony, but try not to risk limbs for them,” Bruce chuckled softly, getting up from his seat at the table and coming over with his plate, dropping it in the sink before he took Tony’s hand and started to examine them. “It’s not too bad, but I’ll give you something to help them out a bit.” He walked off down the hall, leaving Steve, Pepper, Clint and himself in silence.

“Soooo….”

“Don’t talk to try and fill in the silence, sometime we enjoy you with your mouth shut,” Clint grumbled with a bit of a smirk to his lips.

“Oh shut up Clint, you don’t know that until you’ve experienced everything I can do with my mouth open and possibly filled,” he chimed back in response, just grinning and eating his cinnamon bun as he left his hand open to the cool air of the air conditioner. His StarkPhone wasn’t too far as he heard it go off and he blinked. He shrugged it off and went back to eating, ignoring whoever had texted him.

“Sir, you have a message fr-“

“Jarvis, please. I am eating and injured, I will reply back to them when my hands aren’t busy or injured as badly. And speaking of my hands, here comes Bruce!” He waved his burnt hand at Bruce before he gave him a concerned look and he stopped, dropping his hand back to the counter and opening it up for Bruce to do… well, whatever he needed to do to it.

He had come back with a tube of some sort of ointment, but the top was already off, almost showing Tony that that was what was going to help make his hand better. Bruce came to the counter edge and took his hand back gently, dropping the lid to the counter now and squeezing a bit of the tube contents to his hand and rubbing it in very softly, though coating each burn with a good amount of whatever it was.

“Now, put this on whenever that basically wears off because I know we probably won’t be able to stop you from using your hand anyways. So just, be careful, alright?” There was genuine concern in Bruce’s voice as he put the cap back on the tube, so Tony nodded.

“Alright, I can do that.” He stuffed the last of his cinnamon buns in his mouth before putting the tray in the sink, now fairly cooled off after he had eaten. “Thanks though, really, I mean it.” He smiled wide and looked up at Steve and Pepper. “Hey, did either of you put a ribbon on DUM-E during or after your cleaning by the way? It’s a nice colour.”

Steve and Pepper looked at each other, and then looked at Bruce and Clint before the second two shook their heads. “No, none of us did, Tony. He has a ribbon though? What colour?” Steve had spoken this time to try and solve the issue, he had been the one to clean up his workshop after all.

He stopped for a moment to try and remember the colour. Welp, he actually didn’t remember, that was genius of him, he’d have to check in a minute or two. “I don’t remember, but if you guys didn’t, I wonder who did?”

“Tony, you said it was a nice colour but you can’t even remember what colour it actually is? Are you sure you’re okay?” Pepper grabbed the plates from the table that belonged to the three who had sat there before hand and brought them to the sink to drop them in. Clint had got up and left to train or do something. Whatever that kid did these days. Tony was never sure.

“Yes actually, the Advil has kindly kicked in and my head feel a lot better than it did when I first woke up. But really, it was a nice colour. A deep colour, something rich… elegant and almost royal. I have no idea, I’ll go check now. Don’t wait up on me though, I might get distracted and not come back up, I actually do that one hell of a lot.” He grabbed the bottle Bruce gave him with a quick ‘thanks’ before he grabbed his StarkPhone as well from the counter top it was on and checked the text he had gotten.

The text itself had no traceable number to it, just said private number [which Tony found a little bit odd, nothing was untraceable for him, he could get all info out of everything when he put his mind to it],and the message was fairly short and put Tony a little on edge.

_‘I never believed you to be such a simple minded fool, how could someone forget to cover their bare skin when grabbing something at such a high temperature?’_

He looked at it and walked to the elevator, his eyes narrowing as he reread it over and over, pressing the button to go down to his workshop again without much thought and striding right in.

“Sir-“

“Not now Jarv, busy,” he interrupted him again and looked up to see DUM-E and the ribbon, at that moment getting another untraceable text message to his phone.

_‘Oh, also, the ribbon is a gift from me. Please enjoy it. I do hope you get well soon, Stark.’_

“Jarv… where do these texts come from?” He stood almost in horror at the ribbon still, the robot almost in utter confusion as to why it was the victim of such a look.

“Sir, these messages are from within our system somewhere. It seems someone has hacked it and is sending you messages from your own phone in a way.”

Well, this all sounded more and more like trouble Tony didn’t feel like getting into, but it seemed that the trouble had decided to come to him more so. He let out a sigh before he took the ribbon off of DUM-E and held it in his hands, eyes still a little wide and in shock of the current situation.

The silk ribbon was a rich deep emerald green.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I can't write at very good intervals. Whoops.
> 
> Thank you to everyone who reads this though, it means a lot to my pathetic self.  
> //snots all over you all in her happy tears

Really, at this point Tony didn’t know quite what to do other than just freak out and panic beyond all belief. This guy was suppose to be in Asgard, on his fucking weird ass gods planet of the aliens and most likely be DEAD. But then why in the world was he sending texts to Tony through his own computer system that Tony had made perfectly impenetrable to everyone and everything and putting ribbons on his robots?

Why had Loki decided to pick Tony of all people to contact and give up whatever safe haven he had somewhere?

He groaned as he carded his fingers through his mussed up brown curls and had the major urge to smash his head off of his worktable. That was before he heard the slightest movement behind him and ran to the door to his workshop on a mad just to lock the door so no one could get in, even if he was burning alive. In the Ironman suit. Because it was always an option it seemed.

Definitely.

But not today. He went back over to DUM-E and the ribbon gift from Loki [which he still wasn’t sure how exactly a ribbon was a gift in the slightest but whatever, Tony was not going to complain to much at this point] and carefully looked the ribbon over this time. It was a ribbon, just simple green ribbon. Not laced with poison or with a needle in it with drugs or anything. Just a simple. Fucking. Ribbon. So if it wasn’t trying to kill Tony, just what in the fucking world was the trickster up to? Why did he give him a green ribbon?

‘ _Oh, also, the ribbon is a gift from me. Please enjoy it. I do hope you get well soon, Stark._ ’

A gift.

Was this actually a gift from the insane maniac murderous Asgardian?

“Really, Loki? What in the world is a green ribbon suppose to be a gift for? Why do I need a piece of green ribbon? I DON’T GET IT? Is this your humorous way of saying ‘Here, Stark. Tie this about your neck and offer yourself to me as a gift because your pathetic ass isn’t worth anything more than an offering to a maniacal god’?” He had begun to swing his arms around in a bit of a mad fashion and growled as he rambled about what Loki was up to or might be up to. When his phone went off again though he jumped and ran at where he put it on his workbench.

_‘Really, Stark? That was not my original idea but it does seem like a pleasant one. I was more thinking you could use it to tie your hair back, it has gotten a little long. Did you not know that green and red are complimentary colours?’_

Tony could hear the sarcasm coming off of that text. And the fact that he got one again was utterly infuriating.

“Hey! God of being a dick, show yourself because this is just getting annoying beyond all fucking belief! _No one_ goes breaking into my security system and my technology and uses it to fuck with my head!”

Tony was really starting to think that whatever Loki was up to was starting to be a kick to his morale. A kick to his bigger-than-Stark-Tower ego. A moment of _‘Look, you really aren’t in control of everything and I can crush you whenever I would like’_ kind of thing and it was not impressive at all. This was not the way to go to get Tony in bed with you and he was n-

Fuck.

Was Loki trying to get into bed with Tony? That’s usually the way things started if Tony didn’t like the person to begin with, wasn’t it? He had begun to pace back and forth across the span of his workshop, so basically the entire floor that he could cover. He was waiting for a reply back from Loki as he did, knowing that the god would now hear him. He could almost picture the glint in those green eyes of him and how much he wanted to torture Tony and make him squirm under him-

Yeah, somehow he had fucked up his thoughts. Lets start over, he thought before he heard his phone go off and he calmly pulled it from his pocket to look at the text.

_‘Stark. If you keep pacing at that speed across your floor you might lose a couple pounds. I am sure you can sacrifice a few but you also might bore a hole into your floor. What have you been thinking about to drive you to such a petty means of worry?’_

Oooooh yeah, Loki was definitely starting to get on his nerves. “It’s not worry, just wondering about things,” he muttered through grit teeth. Norse god of assholery or not, Loki knew how to push buttons and he would not himself be categorized under ‘worry’ as his current feelings because of the button pushing. “And before you start replying back to me, I’m just trying to figure out your loopholes and all right now. Think about it,” he started. He wasn’t thinking this through but really, he worked better when he babbled about his thinking out loud. Things just happened better.

“You, Mr. Loki Odinson, or before you spit a text back at me, Laufeyson, are suppose to be possibly dead or locked up in Asgard, your realm of the mighty Shakespearian people. But here you are, in New York, being a general pain in my ass by fucking with my technology that no one should be able to fuck with. Now, passing that,” he made a quick hand motion, twirling his right hand in front of his face to show that they were moving on, if Loki could see him anyways.

“You knew that our dear Capsicle had decided to clean up my workshop because I was a bit… drunk. Okay, really drunk, possibly depressed, but we all know that doesn’t last very long with me.”

A chime from his phone.

“I thought I told you to keep your yap shut?” He pulled it out and looked at it anyways.

_‘Stark, you were drunk for three days and drinking solidly for all three. You were definitely depressed, now please continue, it seems I have no other events in my agenda to attend to besides listening to your brain working out loud.’_

“Stop with the sass. If you didn’t want to listen to this you could let me talk to myself like I do when I’m in here all alone.”

_‘I know, I have witnessed.’_

“LET ME FINISH. Anyways, you knew the Cap cleaned my workshop so you had been watching me for a bit of time at least, and seeing as you agreed to me talking to myself in here, even longer than just a little as I haven’t worked like a good little Stark in here for about 2 weeks.” He ran his fingers through his hair and stopped pacing, dropping himself down onto his workbench and flopping onto his back along it, his back cracking as it straightened out against his movements.

“You left me a gift after seeing me looking absolutely miserable. See, this is the part that gets me the most. You left me a gift. Loki, you left me a fucking GIFT. I don’t know why, and that’s what my heads trying to figure out. I’m not worried about anything right now.” He closed his eyes, leaving his phone on his stomach, waiting for Loki to pipe up again.

“Like, are you trying to woo me or something? Cheer me up? Because the ribbon had no poison or anything on it so you aren’t trying to kill me. Come on, help me here oh wise mastermind of assholery. Reindeer games, I don’t understand early Christmas presents.” He let his arms fall outwards, the muscles being pulled at the angle they were from his body, but god did it feel good after three days of drinking and being bundled up probably.

When he heard the chime from his phone he cracked open an eye and opened up the text, this one a bit longer than the best it seemed. The god had decided to actually explain a bit, Tony hoped.

_‘Yes, I have been watching you for some time, Stark. Your mind is quite the intriguing thing, one of the most interesting ones on Midgard, I must confess. Though, the ribbon isn’t as difficult as you’re trying to make it, nor is it simple. It’s a gift from I, to you. I have my meaning behind it and you can take it any way you wish. It isn’t meant for you to hang yourself by, though it would be enjoyable to watch; and it isn’t meant for you to die from in general. The colour is in hopes that you will remembr me upon seeing it when you pass by. Understood?’_

Tony cocked a brow up at the text, then smirked. “So, you want in my pants.”

‘ _How foul you are, Stark. Stop thinking with that head before I behead both of them. It would be simple.’_

“How do I know any of this is the truth though?” He sat himself up and swung his legs over to stand up again, trying to think things over even more again.

_‘Stark. How can one believe lies from a liar unless they also speak the truth at moments or mingle it in?’_

Oh that sneaky son of a bitch.

“You want in my pants.”

_‘Farewell, Stark. I’ll speak again at a later date, it seems something has come up.’_

Tony waited a good ten minutes for any other reply back from Loki, and nothing came through, which meant that the god had actually buggered off to be his godly self and do whatever gods do. Which left Tony to trying to rework his security system and kick the green-eyed god out of his stuff. Which he didn’t think he could do if Loki managed to get in, but god damnit, he was going to try to do so anyways. No one shoved their shit into his stuff and left it there. Especially that asshole.

Tony spent most of his day working on it, getting input from Jarvis whenever the AI had one. Things like if something was possible, which Jarvis usually responded that, yes sir, its possible because you are going to make it so. Which Tony just grinned and thanked his AI and continued working. He didn’t stop for food or drinks [which was pleasant from Peppers point of view] and he worked until he heard his phone ring for the fifth time in the past ten minutes.

Pulling back from his computer he looked down at his phone and flicked open the text messages, looking at who they were from. Pepper, Pepper, Steve, Bruce, and lastly, that damned untraceable number that was his own. He ignored the others texts at the moment and opted to open Loki’s text to see what the jerk had sent him.

_‘Stark, I can tell you are trying to book me from your system. But sadly I do not think you have the means to remove magic from your computer system.’_

Insert a smirk. He could feel it again. He could fucking feel what the bastard on the other end was thinking when he typed it all.

“Asshole. I’ll still try, you know damn well I won’t stop until I get you out,” he growled before opening the other texts. Pepper sent two reminding him about business he had to attend to the next day along with a reminder to eat supper and get some sleep before them. Steve told him his supper was in the microwave for when he came up. Bruce’s was the most interesting out of them, giving Tony an update on how his part of their last project was coming along with a bit of a detailed description of what it looked like. He also attached an invite to come and see it the next day because it was already past twelve am.

Tony blinked and looked to the time on his phone. “Well I’ll be damned. Another day gone by already, huh?” he yawned out, his fatigue finally catching up with him before he rubbed his eyes and stretched his arms up above his head, pulling on each with the opposite to get a bit more stretch out of it. He stood up after saving his progress and coding it in to be affective immediately, then walked over to the elevator, tapping in the code to open it before he walked into it and let it take him up to the common room.

It was completely silent in there, the odd small light from an appliance or two, though they left the light on above the stove beside the microwave so he knew where to go. A midnight meal was nothing new for him as his entire internal clock was fucked up beyond belief, as was most of himself when he thought about it. He opened the microwave and checked there wasn’t anything on top of the pasta that was placed in there before he closed the door and typed in 2 minutes and start, letting the pasta heat up.

He turned himself to stare at the island closer to the main table and blinked, seeing a mug of something steaming with a note tucked under it. He stood up completely again and stroke over, looking inside the cup to smell a soft mint tea. Not his preferred drink but he thought it was something left behind for him from the others to help him sleep. Then looked at the note and noticed the elegant green cursive writing.

_‘Sleep well. It isn’t poisoned.’_

He grumbled before he picked up the mug and took a sip. It seemed trustworthy enough if the god was willing enough to tell the truth earlier and such. He pulled a tablet out from a hidden nook and opened up a book he had been reading on it earlier and began to scan the pages as he waited for his pasta to finish heating up. When it was, he quickly ate it and went back to his tea, taking the mug and the tablet up to his bedroom where he continued to read and finish off his tea.

By one o’clock in the morning though he had finished though and put his tablet over to the side with the mug, rolling over in bed and telling Jarvis to cut the lights. He drifted to sleep very quickly.

The door to the room opened slowly and closed behind the Asgardian who walked in, his footsteps almost nothing as he walked to beside the bed and knelt beside it, letting one long slim finger trace the side of the engineers sleeping face, his own green eyes illuminated in the light of the arc reactor in the slumbering mans chest.

“Sleep well, Stark.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, I apologize that I can't write or spell or anything. :C


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All I can do is apologize for how long it took for me to get this out. o n o

That morning was complete mayhem in the Tower.

Tony really shouldn't have expected anything more or less. The day before was all hell and a hand basket from the god of mischief and lies and fucking with his shit. Which he wasn't pleased about in the least. He never did manage to find a way to kick the guy out of his system so he was stuck just waiting for another text from him. But when he made his way down from his room to the common room, it looked like Thor had decided to visit.

The toaster, usually giving no average person any difficulties, had smoke pouring from it, the sprinklers were going off, and Thor sat at the table. He looked like a punished dog that had to get a bath as the water dripped down his nose and soaked through his clothes. Clint sat at the table, across from him, grumbling odd curses about how Asgardians were not technologically intelligent in any manner. Captain stood in the kitchen, trying to fix the toaster and failing [quite well actually]. Natasha wasn’t in there and either was Bruce, but this was quite the sight for Tony to wake up to.

He turned to Steve with a soft chuckle, though still mildly annoyed. “What, pray tell, happened in here this morning?” He let his blue eyes match with Steve’s as the captain smiled weakly.

“Thor came over, and it seems he’s still not the greatest with electronics and stuff, electricity isn’t his friend,” Steve stated.

Tony looked back to Thor who sat at the table, still wet as the sprinklers sprayed the entire kitchen down with water to douse…the lack of fire obviously. “Jarv, sprinklers off.”

“Yes sir. Sprinklers are now off.”

Tony sighed softly as he shook the water out of his hair with a hand as he ran it through. For being the God of Thunder, Thor seemed to have this never ending vendetta with electronics that he never meant to have, it just happened. He walked over to the toaster and grumbled though, he’d have to buy a new one again it seemed.

“Brother Tony- I apologize for breaking the machine that exchanges bread for this thing called…toast.” He had stood up and walked over to Tony personally.

“It’s fine big guy, it really is, just…ask Steve or Clint to work it for you from now on, alright? Because right now its just…this is the fifth toaster I have bought in the last three months. Toasters should have a better life than this, you know?” He patted Thor on the shoulder with a grin before he unplugged the still smoking machine and tossed it into a bin close to the wall.

“So, what other options do we have for breakfast?” Clint spoke up, his expression still a little upset that there wasn’t any toast in the question it seemed.

Tony looked at his fridge and cupboards than starting to go through them all. “Cinnamon buns from Bruce, we can make pancakes, muffins, waffles, eggs, cake if you really wanted to..” He hummed softly as he thought about what else they had. “And cereal obviously.” He pulled the milk out of the fridge and put it on the counter.

“What kinds do we still have right now?” Steve questioned, going over to the cupboard with the many boxes Stark usually kept for the group. “Fruit Loops, Frosted Flakes, Cherrios, Reeses Puffs, and Cinnamon Toast Crunch. I think Bruce finished off the Special K this morning.”

“And Natasha had toast before our toaster broke. Lucky bitch…” Clint grumbled before he looked over what was on the counter and in the cupboard. “I guess Frosted Flakes. Pull the box out and a bowl for me will you?” He stood up and started making himself breakfast as Tony went about starting to make pancakes.

“Basic pancakes good for the rest of us?” he asked before he got a nod from both Steve and Thor, who had sat down at the table again.

“Is there any way that I can help you?”

“Thor, just sit there and look pretty because past putting what a list tells me to into a bowl, I am as lost as you are. So Cap, care to cook these after I mix them up?” Tony wiggled his eyebrows at the shorter haired blonde who rolled his eyes.

“Don’t offer something to us if you can’t entirely make it, Tony.”

“Hey! You guys should have known I can’t bake or cook anything besides pizza and meat. Pancakes are a whole new world for me, alright?” He patted his hands of flour off on his pants before he added the eggs and milk to the bowl and started to whip it up.

Steve had given in by that point, starting to pull out odd things he would need to actually cook them. A pan, a spatula, things like that. Tony was pretty good at starting things but never finishing them. Well, depending. If it was a project down in his work shop he had it finished without eating or sleeping for three or four days. Not the best thing to be proud of, but it was a bonus having a genius on the team basically; they knew things would get done at least.

Breakfast went by decently smoothly beyond that. Clint finished his cereal than booted it from the kitchen to go train or kill things on the Xbox. Thor and Steve both enjoyed a conversation while they ate after having Tony explain to Thor that syrup was not the main part of the meal [even if Tony enjoyed making it the main part of his own most days].

After that the two went out to spar leaving Tony alone in his kitchen. Which he didn’t stay in. He headed off to shower soon after up in his room, the feeling of water on his skin was something that he quite enjoyed. He was a bit chilled, no matter what time of year it was, because he was a little spooked. Okay, not spooked, maybe close to slightly terrified. A pain in the as by the name of Loki had broken into his system with _magic_. And as much as Tony couldn’t care less some days when it was SHEILD or Dr. Doom busting his stuff [which he did care about, but they were easily blocked out again anyways so it wasn’t much caring more bothering afterwards], but this was fucking _Loki_ , which made it that much more annoying and stupid and just- Yup. Loss of words. _Fucking magic._ That was about it. He hated it, no matter how much he wanted to understand it most days.

He pulled himself from his shower after turning off the water with a simple command to Jarvis. Grabbing the towel he started by drying off his hair, but stopped when he seen a note written in green ink on his sink. It wasn’t a new one, just the one from last night. Which- Shit. He had left it on the counter that night. He hadn’t taken the note and moved it or got rid of it and now someone had found it and brought it up to his room and he was going to get a blast of shit fro-

“Tony. Where did that note come from last night?”

Natasha.

Dear fucking lord Natasha had seen it and he was royally fucking screwed. Good bye Ironman in the Avengers, he was now going to walk into his old life of working by himself. Well, it wasn’t that bad seeing as he didn’t _play well_ with others, but whatever.

“Natasha! Could you give me a second, hun? I’m still naked as a new born and if you are in the doorway I bet my ass is a lovely sight!” He joked, wiggling it just a bit for her.

“I’m just outside the door. But answer my question, Stark. Where did that note come from last night?” she pressed her question more before he grabbed his phone and tossed it at her, wrapping the towel around his waist and walking out into his main bedroom.

“Our friendly, neighborhood God of Mischief has broken into my system.”

“Loki? How did he do that?” Her eyes narrowed as she flicked through the texts from Loki, nothing returned from Tony.

“Magic. Which is why I can’t get him out. He’s compromised my security system if he’s managed to leave me a mint tea and a note on my kitchen counter after everyone was in bed.” He grabbed an extra towel and started to dry his hair off better as he let the remainder of himself air dry because of his unintentional guest that was Natasha. “I obviously didn’t text him back, but when I started talking to him in a bit of a blind annoyance fit, he texted me again. Meaning that he can hear us having this conversation right now too, probably. So its best if-“

The sound for a text rang on his phone while Natasha held it, and she cocked a brow up while Tony rolled his eyes, knowing exactly who it was.

“He has an untraceable number, meaning I can’t text back or block him from my text.” He walked over and peaked over at his phone. “What does the bastard got to say this time?”

He quickly flicked through everything to get to his texts from a number marked as ‘private’. The message he got this time left him with a smirk across his lips.

_‘Good morning dear Widow. I can see that Stark was unintelligent enough to leave my note to him on the counter last night, I really should have removed it myself, but life is much more fun when more people are part of the game. I will warn you now though, if you even speak of these happenings to anyone else in the Tower of Narcissism that I will personally see to ending your or Barton’s life personally. This is a game between Stark and I and I am quite enjoying it so far.’_

Natasha handed the phone back over to Tony before she walked briskly over to the door out of his room. “If anyone in here gets involved in this besides you, Stark, I will _personally_ see to it _myself_ that you will regret this little game with Loki.” And at that, she walked off to the common room probably, or the training room again. Tony never really knew.

“Well, you seemed to involve other people in this game quite easily, Loki. And also, its not a Tower of Narcissism…or maybe it is. Whatever, but its called home right now so you can suck it up because you loved it for your little scheme last time.” Tony waggled his finger towards the ceiling before he pulled off his towel from around his waist. “Now close your eyes and don’t look, I’m going to get dressed finally.”

He could almost hear the laugh that Loki probably gave as he said that, because usually Tony wasn’t much for hiding himself from others views. Today though he mainly said it as a bit of joking, that light flirtatious banter that the two always seemed to have between them. But still, even if Loki was watching him or not, he’d put on a bit of a show as he dried off, then pulled on some boxers and a comfortable outfit, nothing more than a t-shirt with a band logo [today’s choice was AC’DC] and a pair of black jeans, fit almost perfectly to his body to show it off.

“Not sure if you actually watched or not, but I hoped you enjoyed the show,” he winked before he tossed the two towels into his laundry shoot. Another perfect score for Tony as he seen them slide down effortlessly to the laundry room where most machines shifted things around and he’d have those back after his next shower most likely. “Oh! By the way, that mint tea wasn’t that bad. I’ll gladly try it again some time if you offer it.” In Tony’s books it wasn’t as good as coffee but a good drink to settle down at night to that isn’t alcohol. Which he knew Pepper most likely was going to get completely rid of in his tower. Or Steve would. Or they’d band together and both do it, having a lovely barn fire in the back area.

That was a nightmare.

Maybe he’d have to watch what he was drinking now a days, and limit himself or else that nightmare would become a reality. And a not very pleasant one at that. He grabbed his phone though and pocketed it as he walked out to his own personal common area. As much as he loved the company that his tower now had in it [Bruce was an excellent person to bounce ideas off of, Thor was great for amusement, Clint was good competition for video games, Steve made the best dinners, and Natasha well… he didn’t see her much but she was a good blast of realism and reality in his life], he did enjoy his private time in his own penthouse.

He stretched himself across his couch and pulled up one of his many tablets and opened up a project he had just started to brainstorm about. “Jarv, whats the progress on finding out how well this would work out?”

“So far, it is not very likely. But knowing you sir, you are sure to make it happen.”

Damn right he would. He smirked before he waved off his imaginary bother that Jarvis was. “Thanks Jarv. Any luck in finding the magic in your system from that pain, either?”

“Not yet, sir. My systems seem perfectly fine, and I was not programmed to detect magic in my systems either. Apologies, sir.”

His AI was sassing him a bit. He was sassing him how Tony was not prepared and didn’t do whatever it was that was right. He stuck his tongue out in childish defiance towards the air in front of him. “I suppose I should write that up then, huh?” He brushed off his current project on his screen and pulled up the coding for Jarvis he always kept up to date at ever point of access he had.

He didn’t mean to, but he sat there for a good two hours writing and rewriting the code for Jarvis, occasionally asking if it helped any, just to have his phone notify him of another message and Jarvis confirm a negative in any of it helping him. By the end of it all he tilted his head back and grumbled a bit. This was clearly going nowhere and Loki was enjoying the process the entire time. He knew without even looking at his phone because the texts just occasionally went off. Which reminded him he should probably check those anyways, which he proceeded to do.

He flicked open the lock and opened up the texts for a couple from the private number, which was his own system, and then the odd one from others in the tower wondering if he would be down for lunch and what he was doing up in his penthouse for so long. Ignoring his teammates as usual, he tapped open the conversation with Loki.

Most of his comments were just odd notes of how Jarvis was so close to finding him but he never would, seeing as his magic generally had no form to be found in coding. The last one though was off topic from that and Tony actually took the moment to read and register into his system.

‘ _Stark, it would seem that your teammates are a little worried as to what you are doing. The whole lot of them keep trying to get Banner to come and knock on your door to make sure you are not drinking excessively because of Ms. Potts. Would you like me to inform them that you are not drowning in your sorrows but instead trying to do something worthwhile with your time?’_

Son of a bitch was being sassy and snarky as well. He rubbed his temples before he gave in. “Sure, whatever you want to do Loki. Tell them I have all my alcohol safes locked up by you or something. I realized that they’d be locked up or burnt at some point if I didn’t smarten up anyways.” He quickly rolled over on the couch before putting the tablet down and his phone on top of it. “Jarv, we’ll continue this later.”

“Yes sir. May I also inform you that Loki has happily complied to your agreement and has left each Avenger a note informing them that your alcohol has been made off limits for the next two weeks and that you will not be drinking yourself into a maddening state.”

Well, that worked he supposed. Better than appearing in front of them all and scaring the wits out of them, especially seeing as he was suppose to be in Asgard serving time or something. Which he clearly was not.

About that actually.

“Hey, Loki. I know you can hear me and all that jazz, obviously. But aren’t you suppose to be in Asgard jail or something? A dungeon or, I have no fucking idea. We all seen you sent off and shit, so why are you still here on Earth being a giant ass pain in our rears? Well, specifically mine.” Tony waved his hand in the air a bit to try and prove a point, which he actually was doing a bad job of.

It was a second before he felt a hand gently laid on his head and he jumped, unable to yelp as the other hand was placed over his lips.

“Stark. It’s a long story, and I highly doubt you’d like to hear it all. But we will just leave it at that for now.” He removed both hands and sat himself down on the couch with Tony, who was quite wide eyed as he looked up at the Asgardian.

“Jarvis. Lock off the elevator to the top floor, and don’t set off any alarms or inform anyone of this.”

The soft smirk on Loki’s lips was reflected into his eyes as he leaned down to place himself closer to Tony.

Well. This would be entertaining.

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to anyone who did take the time to read this! v____v  
> Hopefully it wasn't as bad as I thought it could be.  
> Any spelling mistakes and grammar fails are my fault alone.


End file.
